Germany's Benjamin Becker caused the biggest upset at Wimbledon so far on Tuesday by knocking out fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Davydenko has never shown any liking for grass and has lost in the first round in five of his last seven appearances.
In a match dominated by baseline play it was Becker's greater accuracy that was the difference and while Davydenko toiled diligently, he could not find the shots to counter Becker's power.
"Losing my serve in first, second and the third sets... it doesn't matter against who I play, I need to play well. I need to have my serve going well and the return also needs to be as good as possible but today my return was really bad," Davydenko said.
Becker, who will next play the winner of the match between Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman and Arnaud Clement of France, was happy with his achievement.
"It is a long time since I won a match at a grand slam. Certainly it feels good to get past the first round at last ... I did what I wanted to do: to be aggressive, to hit heavy balls, and that worked out well," Becker said.
Becker, world ranked 116, had lost in the first round in his last six major tournaments.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal flexed his muscles with a grinding 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 defeat of German qualifier Andreas Beck in the first round.
The Spanish world number two, runner-up to Roger Federer at the All England Club for the last two years, looked comfortable on his return to Centre Court, dispatching an obdurate opponent with few alarms.
Nadal was kept on his toes by some fierce Beck serving but was ruthless when the few opportunities arose, pocketing the first two sets with single breaks of serve.
Left-hander Beck, making his Grand Slam debut, put up some dogged resistance in the third, not least when saving four break points at 3-3, and came within two points of snatching a set before Nadal romped through the tiebreak 7-0..
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